Indulgences
Someone named Alexander Cockburn recently wrote an opinion piece that drew parallels between the practice of paying for carbon offsets and the indulgences sold by the Catholic Church in the middle ages. The creators of BBC’s “Doctor Who” made a similar observation when they equated the Global Warming alarmists to the old man on the corner with the placard announcing the end of the world.
Modernism has always attempted to do away with religion in all its forms. In a sense Evangelical Christians would agree with Modernism on this point. The problem is that religion is a human institution, created by people to replace the need for God in their lives. What is needed is not religion, but a relationship with God. The difference is that Modernism is anti-spiritual, so they simply replaced spiritual religion with secular ideas that became new religions.
It seems the latest form this has taken has been the religiously held ideas of environmentalism and global warming. Neither of these things is in and of themselves bad. Being a good steward of creation is a good and noble idea, and the world is indeed getting warmer. The problem arises when these ideologies lead to a list of requirements that impart “holiness.” People that conform to the rules handed down from the “priests” are deemed good. People who do not are “sinners.”
The Carbon offsets really are like the indulgences of old. The Queen of England on her recent trip to the U.S., concerned with the amount of Carbon her jet would produce, was able to appease her guilty conscience by simply paying to reduce other people’s carbon emissions. Sin all you want, and just pay to have your guilt reduced.
Maybe it is time for someone to nail up a list of theses against Secular Humanism.
Modernism has always attempted to do away with religion in all its forms. In a sense Evangelical Christians would agree with Modernism on this point. The problem is that religion is a human institution, created by people to replace the need for God in their lives. What is needed is not religion, but a relationship with God. The difference is that Modernism is anti-spiritual, so they simply replaced spiritual religion with secular ideas that became new religions.
It seems the latest form this has taken has been the religiously held ideas of environmentalism and global warming. Neither of these things is in and of themselves bad. Being a good steward of creation is a good and noble idea, and the world is indeed getting warmer. The problem arises when these ideologies lead to a list of requirements that impart “holiness.” People that conform to the rules handed down from the “priests” are deemed good. People who do not are “sinners.”
The Carbon offsets really are like the indulgences of old. The Queen of England on her recent trip to the U.S., concerned with the amount of Carbon her jet would produce, was able to appease her guilty conscience by simply paying to reduce other people’s carbon emissions. Sin all you want, and just pay to have your guilt reduced.
Maybe it is time for someone to nail up a list of theses against Secular Humanism.
Yes, that time is definitely here. There are many parallels between environmentalism and religion, of which the offset business is perhaps the most egregious.
ReplyDeleteBut whatever the amusing parallels, it has to stop. Or where will we end up?